CenterStage presents ‘Rocket Man’ Saturday

“Rocket Man,” a Steven Dietz play about a man with a midlife crisis of cosmic proportions, opens at the CenterStage dinner theater on Saturday.

It’s about Donny Rowan, a man whose wife has left him, whose 16-year-old daughter is angry at him and whose dreams of being a landscape architect never panned out. So he puts all of his possessions out on the lawn, with a sign that says: “Here’s my life. Make an offer.”

Then he positions his recliner beneath an attic skylight and waits to be transported to an alternate universe where everybody is what they wanted to be.

This is the Inland Northwest premiere of this 1998 play, although Dietz’s other works are certainly familiar to local audiences.

The prolific Seattle playwright also wrote “God’s Country,” an effective and chilling look at white-supremacist groups, and “Lonely Planet,” an AIDS parable that had a successful run at the Spokane Civic Theatre’s Studio Theatre.

“Rocket Man” continues Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays through March 12. Cocktail service begins at 6 p.m., followed by dinner at 6:30 and the show at 7:30. There will also be one Sunday matinee, on Feb. 27, with lunch at 1 p.m. and show at 2. Susan Hardie directs.

Tickets for dinner and show are $39 on Thursdays and Sundays, $45 on Fridays and Saturdays. Show-only tickets are $22 for any performance and include dessert and beverage. Student show-only tickets are $15.

Tickets are available by calling 747-8243 or at the CenterStage box office, 1017 W. First Ave. Tickets are also available through TicketsWest outlets (325-SEAT, 800-325-SEAT, www.ticketswest.com).